Since politics in the United States is local, the Obama administration must have worked on public opinion utilizing its fear and even disgust with the G. W. Bush interference in Iraq. It projected the Syrian case as a highly complicated issue far away from the main land with no threat to American interests. Such a stand has had a tragic impact on the media and public opinion in the US and elsewhere. It made daily war crimes perpetrated by the brutal Assad regime pass almost unnoticed and scarcely mentioned for fear of creating some political momentum to stop a criminal regime killing its people.
The impact of this deliberate or unplanned loose policy of inaction did not remain within the borders of the US. It was contagious. The body formed under the name “Friends of Syria” has gone down in membership from 131 to about a dozen getting the new name of International Syria Support Group (ISSG), with the term “Friends” removed, probably out of embarrassment, due to ineffectiveness. Pressure mounted on this Group even to the extent of sidelining their influence by the US and Russia each for its reasons: Russia−as the major backer of the Assad regime−is interested in seeing a fragmentation of what it perceives as a front against its friend in Damascus, and in weakening the US as a sole “partner”. The US administration, in turn, did not want to see itself under the pressure of partners who might truly be interested in putting an end to the Syrian tragedy the right way.
When it comes to the Syrian opposition, or what is termed wrongly as “Syrian rebels”, the Obama administration’s policy was loose towards everything and everybody else with the exception of the Opposition and the “Rebels”. Many are the times where they were subjected to underestimation−even demeaning−, threats of, so-called, cutting support, and even fragmentation. However and whatever the make-up of the Opposition might be, no one forgets that shameful meeting the Opposition had with Mr. Obama. The most dangerous element in the latest Russian-American accord is the possibility and even potential inter-fighting between the “Syrian Rebel” groups (those which are moderate and those which are terrorist).
As for the attitude towards Russia, with all the Putin dangling dirty and dangerous files on his back, no one knows what is going on in the Obama administration’s mind to hand in to Putin the whole Syrian file and turn into a secondary subordinate co-signer of whatever Putin mischievously wants in Syria! Fulfilling Putin’s dream of projecting himself as a powerful man before his Russian audience as a competitor with the West, and one who wants to revive the Soviet Empire, is something, and dragging him to the bloody Syrian mud is something else. However, it is difficult to understand the latest Russian threats of the US to expose what Lavrov termed as secret issues contained in the Russian-American accord on Syria lately. One wonders about the extent to which this American loose policy towards the Syrian issue has degenerated.
The most horrible impact such American Administration loose, indifferent or conspiring, even irresponsible policy had was on the action or behavior of the Assad brutal regime. No one could imagine a regime to get away with as many war crimes as this regime at a time when hell turns loose in the 21st century if a policeman spanks a fellow citizen. Official US statements about the illegitimacy of the Assad and that he should go; are beyond counting; however, they all turned out to be not only “much ado about nothing” but an emboldenment of the dictator to be more brutal. Chemical weapons are still used till today, with Obama’s RED LINE probably turning into a “GREEN LIGHT”. Some speculated, at a particular time, that if Russia did not use the VETO to protect the regime–when it used chemical weapons− this US administration would have used the veto. Today few observers say that Lavrov’s threats of exposing the secret items in the latest Russian-American accord concern this US administration consent to keep the dictator intact and in power.
This whole behavior of the American Administration demands answers, not to poor Syrians nor to the world where the US considers itself as “the leader of the free world”, and the ONLY superpower, but to American people and to history. Many have said that the Obama Administration’s behavior is a stain in the history of the US. Even if it is the ISRAELI factor (the Assad regime being a necessity for Israel), an explanation should be provided by this administration. It is true that in the short run, Israel gains a lot, but in the long run, both Israel and the US will not be considered by Syrians as accomplices to their plight but participants in the war crimes perpetrated against Syria and its people.
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